By December 2025, I found myself politically aligned with the left.
Today – only 2 months later - I no longer do.
I always had and still have huge issues with political frame of the
right-wing, therefore I am now finding myself becoming detached from the
political spectrum all together while seeking shelter in my own values and
principles as an individual to guide me through these impossible days as an
Iranian living in the west.
I used to feel connected to the left, as they looked to be more
open and conscious towards immigrants, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights and human
rights in general.
However, I have now realised that left and those who religiously
tie themselves to the left, suffer from the very same rhetorics that they
associate with the right wing: the racist, ignorant and entitled viewpoints
they so strongly oppose within the right wing, can be seen from the very fabric
of their leftist viewpoint as well. Presented in a different attire,
differently cloaked and worded - but identically addled and amoral.
I want to highlight a few examples:
Ø Example 1:
Left doesn’t recognise an Iranian as an individual - just like the right.
Sharing the immigration status and
ethnicity of crime suspects in the UK is something that Farage and co have been
very vocal about. They know that even if 1 in 100 suspects is an immigrant,
that will grant them and their views more momentum and ‘validity’. When the
criminal is white or British, the page is quickly turned over and when and if
the criminal is an immigrant, the magnifying glass is out – Tommy crew are out
and about, and thousands of immigrants are scrutinized and made to feel unsafe.
The biggest privilege one can have is to be
seen as an individual. Those in the left consistently criticize the right-wing
for their vile attempts to associate every crime to all people of colour and
depriving immigrants of the right to be seen as individuals.
The left was quiet about Iran protests and
the rights of Iranians to demand freedom, because a number of Iranians held
Israel flags in their demonstrations. That’s when I understood; the left in the
west also sees us as brainless flock of sheep with universal attributes and no
individual independency. The left doesn’t value or respect brown individuals,
they expect us to adhere to what they believe we are or what we should be, and
if we’re not, all of us are worthless to them.
Ø
Example 2: Left does not care about human rights - just
like the right.
Khamenei was a demonic
leader, who valued women less than property – deemed them ok to be sexually
owned from the age of 9. He believed it was his duty to either convert the
world’s population into Islam or they would face inevitable hell in their
afterlife.
His cleric death cult that
have occupied the beautiful ancient Iran in the past 47 years believe the
world’s coming apocalypse will have the 12th Shia Imam come back
from death (re-appearance), where he would pick 72 of his truest friends (the
most extreme Muslims) and destroy the rest of the ‘unfaithful’ world. They made
us pray for his appearance and occurrence of this prophecy every day in school.
Over the past 47 years,
Khamenei and his regime gave anyone who stood against them, whether that was a
girl without ‘proper’ enforced hijab, a father working 3 jobs but not being
able to feed his kids thus protesting, or a little kid that was at the wrong
place at the wrong time, a death sentence. Anyone who was arrested, was given
‘Moharebeh’, a conviction meaning ‘enemy to God’, which is punishable only by
hanging. He self-announced himself the leader of the Muslims, and a
representative of God on earth.
He would call protesters
‘seditionists’, and by quoting Quran, suggesting sedition is a greater sin than
murder, therefore concluding murder can be inflicted upon those who protest
him. Only 2 weeks ago Khamenei referred to +30,000 unarmed souls that were
killed on his orders by his thugs as: ‘they were sent to hell’.
It baffles me that the left
or anyone on this earth is on the fence about this regime, it makes my blood
boil, my head spin, my soul wrench.
Like any other group of
people, there are many Iranians with whom I have political differences, but all
Iranians are against this regime and they understand this regime requires
especial attention and care to be eradicated. Islamic regime in Iran is a
cancer, you either remove it, or it removes you. This is beyond political
standpoints and beyond left or right to us. This should be how the world views
it, but it isn’t.
Iranians have first-hand
experience of the regime ideologies, the manner it treats anyone who slightly
deviates from its extremist views, the position in which it holds women, the
amount of freedom of expression, identity, speech or choice it grants the
people. Khamenei believed he should forcibly direct his Muslim population to
heaven, he said sometimes they wouldn’t know what’s best for them and it was
his responsibility to forcibly make them do what grants them heaven.
I am not suggesting that I am
supportive of or against military intervention by US/Israel, nor do I advocate
anyone to stand anywhere on this matter – that is a complicated subject maybe
for another time.
However, I would have loved
to see it is common knowledge by now that the worst regime in the world is the
worst regime in the world and it needs special care – this was especially
needed to make sure Trump and Netanyahu do not co-opt the situation for their
personal gain. The question should have never been ‘does Trump care about
Iran?’, the question should be ‘why doesn’t your leader?’
I am so incredibly
disappointed that Trump is the only leader in the world that is currently
acknowledging the situation – even if it is a fake acknowledgment rooted in self-interest.
A fake actor wins the best
performance if all the other actors sit idly home and do nothing. Left is not
doing anything and never has because left do not stand by the human rights they
so viciously advertise; therefore, we are left with practical pigs. It is
left’s failure that has abandoned Iranians with the mere option of trusting
Trump, and yet it is the left itself that mocks and look down upon Iranians for
giving that only option a try. That is beyond shameful.
Take Starmer for example – he
said today, ‘UK don’t believe in regime change from the sky’.
UK is the only European
country not designating IRGC as a terrorist organisation, an action that would
severely impact regime’s control over its international assets, weaken it and
help unarmed Iranians that have continuously showed their clear desire to
overthrow the barbaric regime an incredible advantage. So, what Starmer doesn’t
mention is that his UK also doesn’t believe in pressuring terrorist regimes on
the ground when they are killing innocent civilians protesting on the ground –
he only mentions the sky because it fits his complacent agenda. An agenda the
left has become so accustomed to. The longer you sit down, the more difficult
to stand up.
The mess we have in Iran
right now is not only an imperialist movement from the empire as the left so
desperately want this to be narrated as. The mess in Iran is the outcome of
years of negligence and brushing things under the carpet when it comes to Iran
from the left – a position they still want to remain on. The left’s stand on
Iran has always been a selfish one – and never even slightly influenced by the
violations of human rights, sanctity of life or freedom of expression.
Ø
Example 3: Left is pro-colonialism - just like the right.
All the extremist views the
Islamic regime in Iran holds are rejected strongly by the huge majority of
Iranians.
They attempted to force these
ideologies upon us in their schools, we never learnt. Because us – the Iranians
- are some of the bravest most rebellious populations on earth – we can tell a
real rebellious type from fake ones – the left are faking it.
We rejected the Islamic
regime’s ideas, and they always relied on bullets and guns to stay in power. 10
million Iranians are forced to be in exile, including me. We left because we
wanted to be free, and those remained in Iran, so courageously negate the
regime in every sense of the word.
Removing your hijab is
illegal, yet Iranian women don’t wear it and risk their lives every day.
Kissing your partner in street is illegal, but Iranians kiss passionately.
Drinking is illegal, but Iranians drink like it is the last night of their
lives. Women’s rights are frowned upon by the regime, but Iranians start the
Woman, Life, Freedom movement to empower women’s position and their liberty. Protesting
the regime is punishable by death, yet Iranians die for freedom.
Iranians reject the Islamic
regime, simply because they feel no connection to it. We detest it when we hear
‘government killed its own people’, we are not their people, and they are not
ours.
Islamic regime rarely uses
the word ‘Iran’ when it refers to itself. It uses words like ‘Islamic
establishment’. The ‘I’ and ‘R’ in the infamous IRGC acronym,
stands for ‘Islamic Revolutionary …’, not Iran.
Simply put; Iran is occupied
by a cleric terroristic minority that shares very little of identity and
culture to what Iranian culture is about. This is not an anti-Islam sentiment:
Islam itself in historical Iranian culture is vastly different to that proposed
and enforced by the Islamic regime.
Left is not only unbothered
by that – but ironically many in the left support Islamic regime as an
anti-imperialism force in the region. There are two explanations to this
political ineptitude: one is ignorance the other is moral corruption. Many
Arabs whose nations have done little to nothing for Palestine, and are already
allies to United States, so audaciously support the Islamic regime as the last
line of defence to western imperialism in the region. It is beyond despicable for
one to expect millions of Iranians be sacrificed for an ideology one has formed
from a place of safety and doesn’t even stand for oneself.
Ø
Example 4: Left is brainwashed - just like the right.
One of the most common
critiques left makes of the right is how much they are influenced by media. We
all are. Left although thinks it isn’t.
Aljazeera is no different to
Fox News (GB News). If you don’t know that by now, I am sorry for you.
This was a quick one.
Ø
Example 5: Left is fuelled by hate - just like the right.
Hating the immigrants.
Calling them aliens, calling them illegal without knowing their status. Taking
a camera to Whitechapel and pretending just because brown people exist in the
most diverse part of the UK, then somehow White British population is under
attack. The targeted outrage when a criminal happens to be an immigrant. These
are the famously known and worn-out rhetorics from the right-wing that
summarises how much of a driving factor hate is for political movement
of the right. To oppose that – the left often presents itself as the ‘love’
alternative. I can admit I once believed and gravitated towards the left for
this reason.
After the Islamic regime’s 2
night massacre of protesters in early January, for the next 40 days I was, like
all other Iranians, struggling to sleep, watching videos of mourning families,
some of them dancing at their graves, parents digging through body bags to find
their children’s corpses, reading stories of how the regime killed injured
protesters in hospitals, the kids murdered for just passing by in the streets,
women were r*ped and dismembered after they were killed, how the regime asked
for bullet fees from the families of the killed protesters and how much the
officials called this round of ‘seditions’ another victory for the regime. The
majority of those in the left were quiet during these 40 days.
I was disappointed by this
silence but not as near as disappointed when I saw the outrage of the same
group of people when US attacked Iran 2 days ago.
I don’t have a particular
problem with this outrage – although it does lack respect towards Iranians in a
world that so contrastingly gives them only horrible options, being lectured by
those that always seem to pursue ideals from a safe position. But I would be
just ok with this outrage from the left – if it wasn’t so clearly a targeted
one, if they hadn’t been so quiet during those 40 days. Anyone who is loving,
would care about human life in every turn. Instead, only someone who is
obsessed by hating a particular actor, who would be particularly vocal when
that actor is doing the killing, and quiet at the face of other loss of life.
During past 3 days I have
learnt that the left is also fuelled by hate. Every step taken by an ardent
lefty is one to satisfy his/her rage – similar to their right-wing
counterparts. When Israel is doing the killing, the hate of Israel does yield
enough driving power for a lefty to be outraged, the same couldn’t be said for
the love of innocent lives killed by the hands of regime earlier, or any of the
human rights violations the Islamic regime has committed.
Ø
Conclusions
Therapy is expensive. I
always love writing – even if I write like garbage. I am understandably
struggling these days, so I am adding this to my account – this is not an
invitation for you to think like me, but just a form of expression.
I wanted to speak on the
left, but in the way the left understands.
As an immigrant who has
suffered from the anti-immigration treatment I have faced from the right-wing
in this country, that has had real impacts on my personal life, my journey and
my position in society, I wanted to write here that I am equally disappointed
and disgusted by the left as I am by the right today.
I wanted to shine a light on
their hypocrisy, not to score point for the right – but to remind the left they
are the very thing they convinced themselves to hate. There have been many
other examples in the past few weeks that so clearly highlighted the resemblance
of the right and left ideologies in their core – I am not mentioning anymore
examples.
All my family, my school
friends and relatives are in Iran right now. I am not for war, I am worried,
but worried equally about a future in which the Islamic regime continues to
occupy Iran, destroy its culture and people, and while making this impossible
decision, I am blaming the left and its complacency and disgusted by their
targeted outrage.
